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New York City finally sees snow, briefly

It lasted just a few minutes and left barely a trace on the ground, but New York City has finally seen its first flakes — the latest-arriving snow in 129 years.
Three young men walk down Broad Street a
Three young men walk down Broad Street on Wednesday as light snow falls outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York. The brief snow squall was recorded as Manhattan's fisrt snow of the season. Don Emmert / AFP - Getty Images
/ Source: The Associated Press

It lasted just a few minutes and left barely a trace on the ground, but New York City has finally seen its first flakes — the latest-arriving snow in 129 years.

A few flakes flew through the wind at about 10 a.m. "Then our phones started ringing like crazy," National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Ciemnecki said.

The squall lasted about 15 minutes and recorded a trace in Central Park, Ciemnecki said. It's the latest-arriving snowfall since records were first kept in 1878. Snow didn't come to New York until Jan. 4 on that year, Ciemnecki said.

This winter is one of the warmest on record in the nation; New York has been following global weather patterns — specifically El Nino — that have kept up unseasonably high temperatures, including a 70-degree Saturday.

It's unclear whether this winter could be the least snowy in history — there were just 2.8 inches recorded in 1972-73. "It's not out of the question that we're going to get more later," Ciemnecki said.